01/15/2014

The player who can make the Cowboys' draft class of 2013 great

We laughed and smirked at Jerry Jones and the rest of the Cowboys' football people when they traded down in the first round to acquire a center, but in the end the player the passed on was as good as the player they picked.

If you recall, the Cowboys needed a safety and traded out of the potential of selecting Reid because they thought that was "too rich" to take him at 18. The 49ers grabbed him, and he also is a member of the all-rookie team.

Frederick must be a two or three-contract player for the Cowboys, and after starting all 16 games as a rookie he showed everything necessary to excel at this position for a long time.

All seven draft picks made the team, and contributed ... which is a good or bad thing. The team was 8-8 for a reason.

Wide receiver Terrance Williams (3rd rd) should start next season, and linebacker DeVonte Holloman (6th rd) showed a few things to believe he can play. Second round pick Gavin Escobar is a big maybe.Running back Joseph Randle looks like a nothing, as does fourth-round pick B.W. Webb at corner.

The player who needs to develop to make this a strong draft class is third round pick, safety J.J. Wilcox. He played in 13 games, started five, and finished with 38 tackles and one pass defended.

He was no Eric Reid.

Having made the switch to safety late in his college career at Georgia Southern, there was no way Wilcox was going to be NFL ready as a rookie. He wasn't. But he has to at least be better than undrafted free agent rookie Jeff Heath, who was asked to do far too much in 2013. The two rotated, which is an indictment on Wilcox.

Like Escobar, Wilcox gets a pass because he was a rookie. He gets another year, and if Wilcox "hits" it would give the Cowboys perhaps as many as four out of seven on the class of 2013.

Comments

Out of this class, I see Escobar, Wilcox, Randle, Holloman, and Webb not making it past their rookie contracts. Federick looks like a good player, although I'm not sure you couldn't have gotten him later in the second round. Williams is still raw, but you can see him getting better with game experience. 2 for 7 isn't exactly a bust draft, but it's become the norm for an 8-8 team.